Chinese ICO Ban A Reality, But Not Permanent. Licensing May Be Introduced Soon.

Chinese ban on ICO maybe soon uplifted and come under regulations, along with Bitcoin.

With China announcing a ban on ICO last Monday, cryptocurrency markets have been subject to massive volatility. Speculations and gossip vines also tried to add mode fuel to the fire by suggesting at a probable ban on Bitcoin market by Chinese officials. In such a turbulent scenario, the global cryptocurrency enthusiasts could do well with some positive vibes and that’s exactly what Hu Bing, a Chinese researcher working at the Institute of Finance and Banking revealed at a recent interview with CCTV-13, the state-owned national television network. He attached a “temporary” tag on the government’s ICO ban in his latest interview which got translated by Box Mining for public understanding.

Bing holds the opinion that the ban shall be in place until regulatory policies and frameworks for both projects and ICO investors are introduced by local financial regulators which surely will serve as a bridge over troubled waters caused due to illegal money laundering and other associated activities which use ICO as a safe haven.

Bing also stressed on the fact that the ICO activity has just been paused by the government and not banned in its entirety. Thus there is total chance of the government to lift its ban and the ICO platform to again pick up momentum in days to come. Bing also shared that the financial regulators and government bodies of China are weighing out options of bringing forward a licensing program for allowing the ICO’s to operate in a controlled environment and raise money therefrom. In case the government takes the final call in favour of legalizing Bitcoin, the resultant framework won’t be much different from the BitLicense program of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDF) which makes it mandatory for companies to obtain a license from state officials for catering to New York markets.

Various New York start-ups and even large-scaled ones such as ShapeShift have ceased operations due to the strict policy arena in regard to KYC and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. Simultaneously companies such as Bitstamp and Coinbase have shelled out more than $100,000 for obtaining their trade license. In such a scenario if the Chinese blockchain start-ups shift base to Bitcoin friendly zone like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, then the ban will just end up hurting the Chinese blockchain sector.